Method and apparatus for managing messaging identities

ABSTRACT

A method and apparatus for use in a computer system comprising an email system that generates and receives email messages. The email system manages a first plurality of email messages comprising at least some of the email messages generated and received by the email system. The email system also has a global address catalog that comprises information and provides an index into the first plurality of email messages. The computer system further comprises an extension system that interfaces with the email system and manages a second plurality of email messages comprising at least some of the email messages generated and received by the email system. The method comprises creating an extender catalog, for indexing into the second plurality of email messages, that comprises at least some information that is different than the information in the global address catalog.

RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a Continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.11/159,280, filed on Jun. 22, 2005 entitled, METHOD AND APPARATUS FORMANAGING MESSAGING IDENTITIES. The entire contents of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 11/159,280 is incorporated herein by reference.

FIELD OF INVENTION

The present invention relates to message management systems.

BACKGROUND

Conventional message management systems provide capabilities for thecollection, organization, monitoring, storage, and retrieval of incomingand outgoing email messages. Some message management systems also enableadministrators to set criteria for storing email messages, and/orattachments associated therewith, by copying and/or moving them tosecondary storage locations, and may include centralized storage andretrieval capabilities that can automatically move email messages and/orattachments between main and secondary storage. Some email messagemanagement systems can also capture and index incoming and outgoingemails, and allow users and administrators to search emails.

FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of a conventional system 100 in whicha message management system 105 enables email archive searching. Themessage management system 105 includes an email archiver 134 and anemail archive searcher 120. The email archiver 134 retrieves incomingand outgoing emails from an email server 132 and archives the emailmessages in an email archive 130. Email archive 130 refers to a store ofemails, which may be stored on any type of storage, and need not belimited to a long-term form of storage (e.g., tape). For example, theemail archive may be stored on magnetic tapes, compact discs, hard disksand/or any other form of storage.

System 100 also comprises a global address catalog (GAC) 110 containinga list of messaging identities in an organization. The GAC 110 may beused by the message management system 105 to present a list of displaynames for the messaging identities in the organization, and a user mayselect one or more of the display names whose associated emails (in theemail archive 130) the user wishes to search for. The email archivesearcher 120 may resolve the display names into one or more associatedemail addresses using information contained in the GAC 110, and executea search of the email archive 130 for emails received at and/or sentfrom the associated email addresses. The email archive searcher 120 mayoutput search results 140 of the email messages (in the email archive130) that have been received at and/or sent from the email addressesassociated with the selected display names.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

In the drawings, each identical or nearly identical component that isillustrated in various figures is represented by a like numeral. Forpurposes of clarity, not every component may be labeled in everydrawing. In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a prior art system on which an emailarchive searcher is implemented;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a system on which an email archivesearcher and a super global address catalog (GAC) is implemented inaccordance with one embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a process for performing an initial buildof a super GAC in accordance with one embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a process for updating a super GAC inaccordance with one embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a process for performing an email archivesearch query process in accordance with one embodiment of the invention;and

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a process for performing a GAC searchquery process in accordance with one embodiment of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Email management systems can operate in conjunction with an email systemand manage the archiving of an organization's incoming and outgoingemail messages. As used herein, an email management system may bereferred to as an extension system for an email system, since the emailmanagement system can extend the capabilities of the email system.

Email management systems can allow a user to search an email archive formessages sent and/or received by a specified messaging identity in theorganization. A list of messaging identities in an organization (e.g.,people, distribution lists, aliases, etc) with associated display names,email addresses, and other identity information may be contained in aglobal address catalog (GAC) provided by the email system. As such, aGAC can serve as an index into a plurality of stored email messages byproviding an association between messaging identities and information(e.g., display name, email address) that may be used to determine whichemails belong to a given messaging identity.

An example of an email management system is the EmailXtender® emailmanagement system product offered by EMC Legato, a division of EMCCorporation of Hopkinton, Mass., but the aspects of the inventiondescribed herein are not limited to use with this or any otherparticular type of email management system, and can be used with anyemail management system.

Examples of GACs are the global address list (GAL) used by the MicrosoftOutlook® and Microsoft Exchange Server® email system offered byMicrosoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash., and the global address book(GAB) used by the Lotus Notes® and Lotus Domino® email system offered byInternational Business Machine Corporation of Armonk, N.Y. In thedescription that follows, GAC is used to refer to any global list ofmessaging identities and is not be limited to the list of identitiesused by any particular email system.

As noted previously, an email message management system may allow a userto select a messaging identity in a GAC and search an email archive foremails received or sent by the selected identity. For example, if theuser wishes to retrieve emails associated with a specific person, theemail message management system may search the email archive for emailmessages received at or sent from the email address of the specificperson.

During such a process, the email message management system may retrieveinformation about messaging identities stored in the GAC. Retrievinginformation from the GAC may be accomplished via an application programinterface (API) provided by the email system. Therefore, although anemail message management system may construct and maintain its own emailarchive, the email message management system may refer to the GAC fornumerous purposes. For instance, the email message management system mayuse the GAC to construct a list of messaging identities in theorganization, and to resolve a messaging identity into associated emailaddresses. Once a list of email addresses associated with a selectedmessaging identity is deduced, the message management system may searchthe email archive for emails received at or sent from at least one ofthe email addresses associated with the selected messaging identity.

Messaging identities in the GAC may be associated with any number ofvalid email addresses. Furthermore, the GAC may also contain legacyemail addresses, corresponding to former email addresses that may havebeen associated with a person (or group) at a prior point in time. Insuch an instance, the former email addresses may be retained and storedin the GAC as legacy email addresses, with some information beingincluded to correlate the legacy email addresses to the currentnon-legacy addresses. For example, a person (e.g., “John Smith”) whoworks for a company that is restructured (e.g., via an acquisition ormerger) may have a current email address “JSmith@Company.com” associatedwith the newly organized company and a legacy email address“JSmith@Acquired.com” associated with the person prior to theorganization restructuring.

In conventional systems, the GAC is a dynamic listing of messagingentities which evolves over time. For example, if an employee leaves anorganization, an administrator may choose to reuse the employee's emailaddresses by eliminating their associated entry from the GAC. Forexample, if John Smith, referenced above, were to leave the company anda Jane Smith were to become employed thereafter, the administrator maychose to reuse the “JSmith@Company.com” email address. Furthermore, anadministrator may edit a display name and/or email address in the GAC toreflect a name change of an employee (e.g. resulting from a marriage).In other cases, an administrator may create a new entry in the GAC for anew user, with associated email addresses, and any other associatedinformation.

Applicants have appreciated that changes to the GAC may result indifficulties searching an email archive using information contained inthe GAC. For example, when an administrator edits and/or removes anidentity's data, or the entire identity's entry, from the GAC, an emailmessage management system may not be able to determine email addressesassociated with that identity. For example, when an identity's entry isdeleted from the GAC, the GAC will no longer contain the identity'semail addresses, and therefore, the email message management system willbe unable to determine the identity's email addresses so as to searchthe email archive. Also, when an identity's email addresses in the GACare modified over time, previous addresses may not necessarily be storedin the GAC, and therefore, the email message management system may beunable to determine all the identity's associated email addresses. Insuch an instance, a search of the email archive based on the identity'sretrieved email addresses may not return all the identity's associatedemails, since some emails may be associated with former email addressesnot contained in the GAC.

In one embodiment, a global messaging identities catalog is created andmaintained distinct from the GAC 110, and is referred to as a super GACor an extender catalog (which may be associated with an extension systemfor an email system), wherein the super GAC may have differentinformation from that contained in the GAC 110. The nature of thedifferences between the information in the GAC and the super GAC cantake any form, as the aspect of the invention related to the use of asuper GAC is not limited in this respect. In one embodiment, the superGAC can preserve at least some information deleted from the GAC. Inanother embodiment, information from other sources (examples of whichcan include human resource records, payroll records, the email archive,etc. as discussed below) can be added to the super GAC.

In another embodiment, the validity of an email address for a particularuser is bound with an effective temporal period. For example, in thecase of John Smith, referenced above, the email address“JSmith@Company.com” may be associated with John Smith for an effectivetemporal period, and beyond that period, that email address may beassociated with another person in the organization. The effectivetemporal period may be specified by a begin time alone, an end timealone, both a begin and end time, or any other technique, as theinvention is not limited in this respect. As used herein, the term timerefers to any temporal indicator of any granularity (e.g., year, month,day, hour, minute, etc.).

In a further embodiment, a capability is provided to enable a GAC (orsuper GAC) to be searched based not only on a specified display name,but on other attributes. Examples of such other attributes include emailaddress, domain account name, and other messaging identity attributes,but this aspect of the invention is not limited to these examples. Asused herein, a domain account name refers to a name that in combinationwith a password enables access to an associated account on a networkeddomain of resources (e.g., computers, file shares, printers, etc.).

The capability of searching a GAC (or super GAC) based not only on adisplay name, but on other attributes, provides flexibility in searchinga GAC (or super GAC) for particular identities, since the GAC (or superGAC) may be searched for identities that possess any known attribute.

FIG. 2 illustrates a block diagram of a system 200 in accordance withone embodiment of the invention that employs to a super GAC 215 that canbe used by a message management system 205 to search an email archive230. This is one example of a system that can use a super GAC, butembodiments of the invention relating to a super GAC are not limited tothis or any other particular system implementation.

The message management system 205 comprises an email archiver 234 thatretrieves incoming and outgoing emails from email server 232 of an emailsystem and archives the email messages in an email archive 230 using anyarchiving method. For example, the email archive 230 may contain storedmessages in a plurality of folders with different retention periods,where the retention period is the length of time from initial storagebefore emails in that folder are deleted. The email archive 230 may haveassociated metadata which may facilitate searching of the archive. Oneexample of metadata associated with an email archive is a full-textindex, containing an index of all terms in the messages contained in theemail archive.

An email archive searcher 220 executes a search (e.g., in response to asearch request from a user) of the email archive 230 for emails receivedat and/or sent from specified email addresses, and may output searchresults 240.

System 200 also includes a GAC 210 and can also include extendedinformation sources 260. The GAC 210 can take any form, as the inventionis not limited to use with systems having GACs of any particularconfiguration. The GAC 210 may be created and maintained by an emailapplication program (not shown). For example, the GAC may contain a listof messaging identities in an organization, where each messagingidentity entry may have an associated display name, email addresses,domain account names, messaging identity attributes, and/or otherinformation. The messaging identity entries in the GAC 210 may relate topeople, distribution lists, aliases, or any other identities, as theinvention is not limited in this respect.

In some embodiments, the super GAC 215 can be populated with informationfrom extended information sources other than a single GAC 210. As anexample, there may be repositories (e.g., databases) of information inan organization such as human resource records, payroll, etc., and inone embodiment, information from these sources can be added to the superGAC 215, as discussed below. In the illustrative implementation of FIG.2 an updater 250 is provided to update the super GAC 215 withinformation from external sources, but the super GAC 215 may bepopulated in any way, as the invention is not limited in this respect.In one embodiment, the current email archive 230 can also be used as anextended information source to extract information which can be used topopulate the super GAC 215. In another embodiment, information from twoor more GACs from different systems can be used to populate a singlesuper GAC 215. This can be advantageous when an organization is usingmultiple different email systems maintaining separate GACs. In suchcases, it may be desirable to create a single super GAC containing theinformation from the separate GACs, thereby consolidating informationfor messaging identities in the organization.

It should be understood that the examples provided above concerning theway in which the super GAC 215 can be populated with information fromsources other than from the GAC 210 are merely illustrative, and thatthe embodiments directed to the use of a super GAC is not limited to onepopulated in the ways described above.

The super GAC updater 250 may process information from the GAC 210, andoptionally also one or more extended information sources 260, to createand/or update the super GAC 215. In one embodiment, the super GAC 215may contain a list of messaging identities in the organization,including identities that may differ from those in the GAC 210. Forexample, the super GAC 215 may include current messaging identityentries contained in the GAC 210, messaging identity entries that weredeleted from the GAC 210 (e.g., as a result of people departing theorganization), and/or messaging identity entries whose associated data(e.g., display names, email addresses, and/or other information) hasbeen modified in the GAC 210 (e.g., due to name changes, organizationrestructuring, or any other reason).

In instances when information is deleted from or modified in the GAC210, the super GAC 210 may include the prior information and time boundinformation describing an effective temporal period for which theinformation is accurate. This is advantageous when responding toqueries, since information may be associated with a particular identityonly during a certain time period. For example, an email address may beassociated with a particular messaging identity during a certain timeperiod, and beyond that period, that email address could be associatedwith another messaging identity.

In one embodiment, where information in the super GAC 215 is timebounded, time information can be provided in numerous ways, and theinvention is not limited to any particular way of providing timeinformation. For example, time information can manually be entered intothe super GAC 215. In other embodiments, time information may bedetermined using one or more extended information sources 260, or anyother suitable approach. Furthermore, any given method of providing timeinformation may be used on its own, or may used in combination with oneor more other methods for providing time information.

The super GAC 215 may also include additional information furtherrestricting the association of email addresses with people in theorganization. In one embodiment, such additional information may includebegin and/or end times, or any other information. As previously noted,as used herein, the term time refers to any temporal indicator of anygranularity (e.g., year, month, day, hour, minute, etc.).

Begin and end times for an email address of a person may specify a timeperiod during which the email address was associated with the person.For example, an end time associated with an email address for a personmay be desirable when the person departs the organization and theiremail address is reused by another person.

Numerous implementation are possible with regards to begin times and endtimes in the super GAC 215, as the embodiments that employ this featureare not limited to any particular implementation. In one embodiment,each messaging identity entry in the super GAC 215 may have a globalbegin and end time applying to all email addresses associated with theidentity, and/or each email address belonging to the identity maypossess individual begin and end times. Individual begin and end timesfor each email address may be useful when a person has not departed theorganization, but one or more of their former email addresses may nolonger be associated with the person. In contrast, global begin andtimes may be useful when a person has departed the organization, andtherefore all of their former email addresses are no longer associatedwith the person.

In one embodiment, the email archive searcher 220 may use information inthe super GAC 215 to resolve a messaging identity into associated emailaddresses, and utilize the associated email addresses to search theemail archive 230 for emails that have been sent or received by themessaging identity. The email archive searcher 220 may output theresults of the email archive search as search results 240.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating one embodiment of a super GAC initialbuild process 300, which may be performed by the super GAC updater 250,or by any other component(s), as the invention is not limited in thisrespect. FIG. 3 shows merely one example, as a super GAC initial buildcan be performed in other ways. Acts performed in process 300 may beautomated, manual or combinations thereof.

Process 300 begins in act 310 where messaging identities in the GAC 210corresponding to people are extracted and stored in the super GAC 215.In act 315, the messaging identities in the GAC 210 corresponding tonon-people (e.g., distribution lists and aliases) are exploded so as todetermine the email addresses included in them. In act 320, thedistribution lists and aliases are associated with the extracted people(determined in act 310) based on the email addresses determined in act315. In act 325, a record of the distribution lists and aliasesassociated with each person is entered into the appropriate peopleentries in the super GAC 215. In this way, people entries extracted fromthe GAC 210 have corresponding super GAC 215 entries, and each of thesepeople entries in the super GAC 215 may have an associated display name,email addresses, aliases, distribution lists to which the personbelongs, and other information.

In act 330, a determination is made as to whether an email archive hasbeen in existence prior to the initial super GAC build process 300. Forexample, an email archive 230 that has been in use for months or yearsmay qualify as a preexisting archive system, and in such cases numerouschanges may have been performed on the entries in the GAC 210 prior tothe execution of process 300. In such instances, the email archive 230may contain emails associated with deleted and/or modified emailaddresses, and information correlating these email addresses toappropriate people in the organization may not be contained in thecurrent GAC 210.

When the email archive system is not a preexisting system, process 300proceeds to act 335, where begin times for each of the entries in thesuper GAC 215 may be set to the current time. As previously mentioned, abegin time may be assigned to the association of an email address with amessaging identity, and therefore, email addresses associated withmessaging identities in the super GAC 215 may have corresponding begintimes for each email address.

In contrast, when it is determined (in act 330) that the email archivesystem is a pre-existing system, process 300 proceeds to determine beginand/or end times for entries in the super GAC 215. This can be done inany of numerous ways, as the invention is not limited in this respect.In the embodiment shown in FIG. 3, the process proceeds to act 340,where extended information sources 260 are consulted to determine beginand/or end times for entries in the super GAC 215. For example, a humanresource database and/or payroll data sources may be used to determinebegin times for identity entries in the super GAC 215, based on startand termination times for employees. For example, the extendedinformation sources 260 may contain times indicating when a personjoined or left the organization, information relating to times of namechanges, or other relevant information about people in the organization.In one embodiment, the current email archive 230 may optionally be usedas an extended information source 260, so as to assist in determiningbegin and end times. For example, the current email archive can besearched to extract email messages sent or received by a given personassociated with a given email address and display name. Upon extractionof the email messages, the time of the oldest email message can be usedas the begin time for the association of the email address with thegiven person. Furthermore, when it has been determined that the personis no longer part of the organization (e.g., using human resource and/orpayroll data sources), the time of the most recent email associated withthe person can be used as the end time.

In act 345, begin times are recorded in the super GAC 215. Also, when itis determined (e.g., from the extended information sources 260) that aperson is no longer part of the organization as of a past time, the endtime for that person may be entered into the super GAC 215.

Process 300 results in the initial build of a super GAC 215 which maycontain a list of entries for messaging identities in the organization,where each entry may include an associated display name, emailaddresses, aliases, distribution lists, domain account names, messagingidentity attributes, begin and end times, termination indicators, andany other information associated with each person, as the invention isnot limited in this respect.

It should also be appreciated that the use of supplemental databases isone example of extended information sources that may be used toconstruct the super GAC 215. The invention in not limited to the use ofany particular databases as extended information sources, nor to the useof any extended information sources at all, as some embodiments do notemploy extended information sources in building the super GAC.

In another embodiment, multiple GACs 210 may be used to build the superGAC 215 in process 300, resulting in a merge of the multiple GACs 210into a super GAC 215 that can be used to manage multiple different emailsystems. Such a procedure may be desirable when an organization is usingmultiple different email systems maintaining separate GACs. In such acase, it is desirable to create a super GAC 215 containing theinformation from the separate GACs, thereby consolidating informationfor messaging identities in the organization. In one embodiment, GACsfrom email systems of different vendors may be combined using process300 to create a super GAC 215 that contains information from the GACs ofthe different email systems.

Once a super GAC 215 has been initially built, the super GAC 215 may beupdated to reflect, in any suitable manner, changes in the GAC 210 thathave occurred after the initial build of the super GAC 215. In oneembodiment, an administrator may chose a super GAC 215 update timeinterval which determines how often the super GAC 215 is automaticallyupdated. For example, the super GAC 215 update process may be performedat regular intervals (e.g., daily, weekly, monthly, etc.). The super GAC215 update process can be initiated automatically and/or manually. Forexample, the super GAC 215 update process may be initiated at any timeat the request of the administrator. The super GAC 215 update processmay be performed by a super GAC updater 250, or by any other component,as the invention is not limited to any particular implementation.

In accordance with one embodiment, a super GAC 215 may be updated tostore historical data associated with modifications in a GAC 210.

FIG. 4 illustrates a flow chart for a super GAC 215 update process 400for updating the entries in a super GAC 215 based on current entries inthe GAC 210. Process 400 may be performed by the super GAC updater 250in system 200, or by any other component, or combination of components,as the invention is not limited in this respect. Process 400 is just oneexample of a super GAC 215 update process, which can be performed inother ways.

In act 410, messaging identity entries in the GAC 210 corresponding topeople are extracted. In act 415, the messaging identity entries in theGAC 210 corresponding to distribution lists and aliases are exploded soas to reveal associated email addresses. In act 420, the distributionlists and aliases present in the GAC 210 are associated with theextracted people determined in act 410, based on the email addressesassociated with the distribution lists and alias (determined in act415).

In act 425, the extracted information determined in acts 410, 415 and420 is compared with entries present in the current super GAC 215. Inparticular, the comparison may include a determination of whetherinformation in the GAC 210 has been deleted, added, and/or edited, ascompared to information contained in the current super GAC 215.

In act 430, a determination is made as to whether any entries have beendeleted from the GAC 210 based on a comparison with the current superGAC 215. When it is determined that GAC entries have been deleted,process 400 proceeds to act 435, where end times of the one or moredeleted entries are entered in the super GAC 215. These end times denotetimes beyond which email addresses associated with a person may nolonger be associated with that person. The end time for an email addressassociated with a given person may be determined in any suitable way, asthe invention is not limited in this respect. In one embodiment, the endtime of an email address associated with a given person may bedetermined by searching the email archive 230 for the most recent email,associated with the display name of the given person, that was receivedat and/or sent from the associated email address. Upon determining themost recent email, the end time may be set to the send or receive timeof the most recent email. Furthermore, when it is determined that onlyone of several individual email addresses associated with a person hasbeen deleted, an end time may be updated for that email address only, asthe others remain valid.

When it is determined that there are no deleted GAC 210 entries (in act430) or when act 435 is completed, process 400 proceeds to act 440,where it is determined whether new entries have been added to the GAC210 as compared with entries present in the super GAC 215.

When it is determined that new entries have been added to the GAC 210,process 400 proceeds to act 445, where the new entries added to the GAC210 are entered in the super GAC 215, and the begin times for the newentries may be set to an appropriate time. In one embodiment, the begintimes may be set to the current time. In another embodiment, when begintime information is present in extended information sources 260, thisinformation may be used to determine the begin times for the new entriesthat were added to the GAC 210.

When it is determined that no new entries have been added to the GAC 210or act 445 is completed, process 400 proceeds to act 450, where it isdetermined whether there are any edited GAC entries in the GAC 210.

When it is determined that there are one or more edited entries in theGAC 210, process 400 proceeds to act 455, where new entries may be addedthe super GAC 215 corresponding to edited entries in the GAC 210, andassociated begin times for the new edited entries may be set in thesuper GAC 215. In one embodiment, entries in the super GAC 215corresponding to the edited GAC entries may have their associated endtimes set to a time determined from the extended information sources260, but the invention is not limited to use with extended informationsources 260. For example, the begin time for an email address associatedwith a given person may be determined by searching the email archive 230for the most recent emails associated with the display name of the givenperson that were received at or sent from the associated email address.

Process 400 then proceeds to act 460, where the entries in the super GAC215 corresponding to the pre-edited GAC entries may have theirassociated end times set to a time determined in any suitable manner. Inone embodiment, entries in the super GAC 215 corresponding to thepre-edited GAC entries may have their associated end times set to a timedetermined from the extended information sources 260, but the inventionis not limited to use with extended information sources 260. Forexample, the end time for an associated email address associated with agiven person may be determined by searching the email archive 230 forthe most recent emails associated with the display name of the givenperson that were received at or sent from the associated email address.Using such a technique, all edits to the GAC 210 may be recorded andhistorical information may be retained in the super GAC 215.

When it is determined in act 450 that there are no edited GAC entries oract 460 is completed, process 400 terminates.

It should be appreciated that in the updating process 400 describedabove, an end time is only specified for information that may no longerbe valid, and any information without a corresponding end time may beconsidered to still be valid.

Actions which may lead to deletion, addition, and/or editing of GAC 210entries are numerous, and the embodiments of the invention describedherein are not limited in this respect. For example, a person's entireentry may be deleted from a GAC 210 upon departing an organization.Also, a domain may be removed from an organization, and as a result,entries for people with domain account names associated with that domainmay be removed from the GAC 210. In addition, transferring a person fromone division to another may result in information in the GAC 210associated with that person being modified. For example, an emailaddress, domain account name, and/or other messaging identity attributes(e.g., organization name, office building, department) may be modifieddue to a division transfer.

In another embodiment, multiple GACs 210 may be used to update the superGAC 215 in process 400. The multiple GACs may include GACs from emailsystems from different vendors.

In accordance with one embodiment, the super GAC 215 may be utilized tofacilitate the search of the email archive 230 for emails satisfying asearch query (e.g., to find email messages corresponding to specificpeople in the organization).

FIG. 5 illustrates a flow chart for a process 500 for performing anemail archive search query. Process 500 may be executed in its entiretyor in part by the email archive searcher 220, and/or by any othercomponent, as the invention is not limited in this respect.

In act 510, information in the super GAC 215 may be displayed, and as aresult, a user may select one or more pieces of information for whichthey would like to search in the email archive 230. The displayedinformation can take any form, as the invention is not limited in thisrespect. For example, the displayed information may be the messagingidentities contained in the super GAC 215. Alternatively, a user maysearch the super GAC 215 for a specific display name, email address,domain account name, other messaging identity attributes, or any otherattribute, and select which messaging identities' emails they would liketo retrieve from the email archive 230.

In act 515, process 500 receives a selection of the messaging identitieswhose associated email messages should be searched for in the emailarchive 230. In act 520, the process 500 proceeds to resolve theselected messaging identities based on information contained in thesuper GAC 215. Associated email addresses for the selected messagingidentities may be bound with begin times, end times, and/or any otherinformation which may specify the association of an email address with amessaging identity for a specific temporal interval. For example, theabove-mentioned user John Smith may have had an associated email address“JSmith@Company.com” for a first temporal period, but that same emailaddress may be associated with the above-mentioned user Jane Smith for asecond temporal period, where the first and the second temporal periodsdo not overlap. For that example, a query for emails associated withJane Smith will return emails associated with the “JSmith@Company.com”email address sent and/or received during the second temporal period,and a query for emails associated with John Smith will return emailsassociated with the “JSmith@Company.com” email address sent and/orreceived during the first temporal period.

Upon resolution of the selected messaging identities into associatedemail addresses, in act 525, the email archive 230 is searched for emailmessages received at or sent from the associated email addresses,restricted by the begin and end times associated with the emailaddresses, where appropriate. Upon determination of which emails in theemail archive 230 have been received at or sent from the associatedemail addresses for the selected identities (between corresponding beginand end times), process 500 proceeds to act 530 wherein the emailarchive search results are outputted. For example, the search resultsmay be presented to a user, showing the email message title, sentaddress, received address, time, size, and any other information as theinvention is not limited in this respect. Furthermore, upon selection ofone or more of the search results, the associated complete email messagemay be presented.

As mentioned above, in accordance with another embodiment, a super GAC215 (or a GAC 210) may be searched based on search criteria other thanmessaging identity display names.

FIG. 6 illustrates a flowchart of a process 600 for searching a superGAC 210 based on search criteria, so as to select one or more messagingidentities corresponding to the search criteria. The process 600 doesnot search the email archive 230, but rather searches the super GAC 215so as to present one or more messaging identities that satisfy searchcriteria (e.g., provided by a user). In another embodiment, process 600can be combined with a process such as illustrated in FIG. 5 to returnemails from the email archive 230.

In act 610, process 600 may display search options, allowing a user toselect whether they would like to search the super GAC 215 for messagingidentities based on email address information, display name information,domain account name information, other messaging identity attributeinformation, and/or any other information contained in the super GAC215.

In act 620, process 600 receives the search information provided by inresponse to act 610 and proceeds to perform a search of the super GAC215 based on the provided search criteria.

In act 630, it is determined whether the search of the super GAC 215should be conducted based on email address information. When a user hasselected the email address search option, and provided suitable emailaddresses for which to search, process 600 proceeds to act 635 where thesuper GAC 215 is searched for email addresses that correspond to thoseprovided by the user. Search results may be presented immediately and/orrecorded for subsequent presentation.

Process 600 proceeds to act 640 after completing act 635, or after it isdetermined that an email address search was not selected (act 630). Inact 640, a determination is made as to whether a display name search wasselected by the user, and if so, process 600 proceeds to act 645 wherethe super GAC 215 is searched for messaging identities corresponding tothe selected display names. Search results may be presented immediatelyand/or recorded for subsequent presentation.

Upon completion of act 645, or after it is determined (in act 640) thata display name search was not selected, process 600 proceeds to act 650,where it is determined whether a domain account name search wasselected. When a domain account name search was selected, process 600proceeds to act 655, where the super GAC 215 is searched for messagingidentities possessing one or more domain account names selected by theuser. Search results may be presented immediately and/or recorded forsubsequent presentation.

Upon completion of act 655, or after it is determined (in act 650) thata domain account name search was not selected, the process 600 proceedsto act 660, where it is determined whether a specific messaging identityattribute search was selected. When a messaging identity attributesearch was selected, process 600 proceeds to act 655, where the superGAC 215 is searched for messaging identities possessing a messagingidentity attribute specified by the user in the search criteria. Searchresults may be presented immediately and/or recorded for subsequentpresentation.

Upon completion of act 655, or after determining in act 660 that adomain account name search was not selected, process 600 proceeds to act670, where the search results of the super GAC are presented.

In one embodiment, the output of the super GAC search results maycomprise a list of one or more messaging identities that satisfy thesearch criteria. One or more messaging identities may then be selected(e.g., by a user) and the selected identities may be used in conjunctionwith any other processes which use one or more selected messagingidentities in the super GAC 215. For example, process 600 may be used soas to display super GAC identities in act 510 of process 500.

As should be appreciated from the foregoing, there are numerous aspectsof the present invention described herein that can be used independentlyof one another, including the aspects that relate to building andupdating a distinct global messaging identities catalog different from aGAC, preserving information that has been deleted or edited in the GAC,binding the validity of an email address for a particular user with aneffective temporal interval, searching an email archive for emailsassociated with email addresses bound by an effective temporal interval,enabling a user to search a GAC based on a specified display name, emailaddress, domain account name, other messaging identity attributes,and/or based on any other attribute.

It should also be appreciated that a processor programmed to perform agiven act may also perform other acts in addition to the given act. Forexample, a processor programmed to perform a given act (e.g., creating asuper GAC) may also run an email system and/or an extension system forthe email system.

However, it should also be appreciated that in some embodiments, all ofthe above-described features can be used together, or any combination orsubset of the features described above can be employed together in aparticular implementation, as the aspects of the present invention arenot limited in this respect.

The above-described embodiments of the present invention can beimplemented in any of numerous ways. For example, the embodiments may beimplemented using hardware, software or a combination thereof. Whenimplemented in software, the software code can be executed on anysuitable processor or collection of processors, whether provided in asingle computer or distributed among multiple computers. It should beappreciated that any component or collection of components that performthe functions described above can be generically considered as one ormore controllers that control the above-discussed functions. The one ormore controllers can be implemented in numerous ways, such as withdedicated hardware, or with general purpose hardware (e.g., one or moreprocessors) that is programmed using microcode or software to performthe functions recited above.

It should be appreciated that the various methods outlined herein may becoded as software that is executable on one or more processors thatemploy any one of a variety of operating systems or platforms.Additionally, such software may be written using any of a number ofsuitable programming languages and/or conventional programming orscripting tools, and also may be compiled as executable machine languagecode. In this respect, it should be appreciated that one embodiment ofthe invention is directed to a computer-readable medium or multiplecomputer-readable media (e.g., a computer memory, one or more floppydisks, compact disks, optical disks, magnetic tapes, etc.) encoded withone or more programs that, when executed, on one or more computers orother processors, perform methods that implement the various embodimentsof the invention discussed above. The computer-readable medium or mediacan be transportable, such that the program or programs stored thereoncan be loaded onto one or more different computers or other processorsto implement various aspects of the present invention as discussedabove.

It should be understood that the term “program” is used herein in ageneric sense to refer to any type of computer code or set ofinstructions that can be employed to program a computer or otherprocessor to implement various aspects of the present invention asdiscussed above. Additionally, it should be appreciated that accordingto one aspect of this embodiment, one or more computer programs that,when executed, perform methods of the present invention need not resideon a single computer or processor, but may be distributed in a modularfashion amongst a number of different computers or processors toimplement various aspects of the present invention.

Various aspects of the present invention may be used alone, incombination, or in a variety of arrangements not specifically discussedin the embodiments described in the foregoing, and the aspects of thepresent invention described herein are not limited in their applicationto the details and arrangements of components set forth in the foregoingdescription or illustrated in the drawings. The aspects of the inventionare capable of other embodiments and of being practiced or of beingcarried out in various ways. Various aspects of the present inventionmay be implemented in connection with any type of network, cluster orconfiguration. No limitations are placed on the network implementation.

Accordingly, the foregoing description and drawings are by way ofexample only.

Also, the phraseology and terminology used herein is for the purpose ofdescription and should not be regarded as limiting. The use of“including,” “comprising,” or “having,” “containing,” “involving,” andvariations thereof herein, is meant to encompass the items listedthereafter and equivalent thereof as well as additional items.

1. A method for use in a computer system comprising an email system thatgenerates and receives email messages, the email system managing a firstplurality of email messages comprising at least some of the emailmessages generated and received by the email system, the computer systemfurther comprising an extension system that interfaces with the emailsystem and manages a second plurality of email messages comprising atleast some of the email messages generated and received by the emailsystem, the method comprising: (A) creating, by the computer system, anextender catalog that comprises a list of messaging identities andprovides an index into the second plurality of email messages byproviding an association between the extender catalog messagingidentities and information that can be used to determine which of thesecond plurality of email messages belong to which extender catalogmessaging identities, wherein the extender catalog comprises at leastsome information that is different than the information in a globaladdress catalog (GAC) provided by the e-mail system, wherein the GACcomprises a list of messaging identities for an organization serviced bythe email system and provides an index into the first plurality of emailmessages by providing an association between the GAC messagingidentities and information that can be used to determine which of thefirst plurality of email messages belong to which GAC messagingidentities.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the emailmessages generated or received by the email system is included in onlyone of the first plurality of email messages and the second plurality ofemail messages.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the act (A) comprisesan act of creating the extender catalog to include at least someinformation that is not included in the GAC.
 4. The method of claim 1,wherein the act (A) comprises an act of creating the extender catalog atleast partially using the information from the GAC.
 5. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the act (A) comprises an act of creating the extendercatalog at least partially using the information from at least onesource other than the GAC.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein theextender catalog provides an interface to enable a user to search thesecond plurality of email messages.
 7. The method of claim 1, whereinthe at least some information that is different than the information inthe GAC comprises temporal information.
 8. The method of claim 7,wherein the temporal information comprises a temporal period for whichan email address is associated with a messaging entity.
 9. At least onenon-transitory computer readable medium encoded with a plurality ofinstructions that, when executed, perform a method for use in a computersystem comprising an email system that generates and receives emailmessages, the email system managing a first plurality of email messagescomprising at least some of the email messages generated and received bythe email system, the computer system further comprising an extensionsystem that interfaces with the email system and manages a secondplurality of email messages comprising at least some of the emailmessages generated and received by the email system, the methodcomprising: (A) creating an extender catalog that comprises a list ofmessaging identities and provides an index into the second plurality ofemail messages by providing an association between the extender catalogmessaging identities and information that can be used to determine whichof the second plurality of email messages belong to which extendercatalog messaging identities, wherein the extender catalog comprises atleast some information that is different than the information in aglobal address catalog (GAC) provided by the e-mail system, wherein theGAC comprises a list of messaging identities for an organizationserviced by the email system and provides an index into the firstplurality of email messages by providing an association between the GACmessaging identities and information that can be used to determine whichof the first plurality of email messages belong to which GAC messagingidentities.
 10. The at least one computer readable medium of claim 9,wherein at least one of the email messages generated or received by theemail system is included in only one of the first plurality of emailmessages and the second plurality of email messages.
 11. The at leastone computer readable medium of claim 9, wherein the act (A) comprisesan act of creating the extender catalog to include at least someinformation that is not included in the GAC.
 12. The at least onecomputer readable medium of claim 9, wherein the act (A) comprises anact of creating the extender catalog at least partially using theinformation from the GAC.
 13. The at least one computer readable mediumof claim 9, wherein the act (A) comprises an act of creating theextender catalog at least partially using the information from at leastone source other than the GAC.
 14. The at least one computer readablemedium of claim 9, wherein the extender catalog provides an interface toenable a user to search the second plurality of email messages.
 15. Theat least one computer readable medium of claim 9, wherein the at leastsome information that is different than the information in the GACcomprises temporal information.
 16. The at least one computer readablemedium of claim 9, wherein the temporal information comprises a temporalperiod for which an email address is associated with a messaging entity.17. At least one apparatus for use in a computer system comprising anemail system that generates and receives email messages, the emailsystem managing a first plurality of email messages comprising at leastsome of the email messages generated and received by the email system,the computer system further comprising an extension system thatinterfaces with the email system and manages a second plurality of emailmessages comprising at least some of the email messages generated andreceived by the email system, the at least one apparatus comprising: atleast one processor programmed to create an extender catalog thatcomprises a list of second messaging identities and provides a secondindex into the second plurality of email messages by providing anassociation between the second messaging identities and information thatcan be used to determine which of the second plurality of email messagesbelong to which second messaging identities, wherein the extendercatalog comprises at least some information that is different than theinformation in a global address catalog (GAC) that comprises a list ofmessaging identities for an organization serviced by the email systemand provides an index into the first plurality of email messages byproviding an association between the GAC messaging identities andinformation that can be used to determine which of the first pluralityof email messages belong to which GAC messaging identities.
 18. The atleast one apparatus of claim 17, wherein the at least one processor isprogrammed to create the extender catalog at least partially using theinformation from the GAC.
 19. The at least one apparatus of claim 17,wherein the at least some information that is different than theinformation in the GAC comprises temporal information.
 20. The at leastone apparatus of claim 17, wherein the temporal information comprises atemporal period for which an email address is associated with amessaging entity.